[Bikenbear]

Thought you might be interested in this. My 1078RR has a 85 mm vertical crack in the catalytic converter. The bike is still under warranty and I have notified the shop and am just waiting to hear back from them about what they will do to fix the problem. It has sounded wrong for a while now and I just thought it was getting out of tune then I discovered the crack on the weekend which I think explains the strange exhaust note and rough running/backfiring.

 

[eddypro]

Wow, thats incredible,how many k's have you done.

 

[oldbutspry]

That's a good excuse to buy a new aftermarket exhaust! Or maybe just a pipe to replace the converter. :naughty:

 

[theknurl]

pull the pipe and take it to a welder, problem solved

 

[Resom]

Too bad you're not in the States, I have 2 of these that are about to go in the garbage can! One I just threw out behind the house last week.....I still need to pull the little plugs out of it for the replacement Ti system that's going in its place.

These are scrap metal in the States

 

[theknurl]

little plugs?

Resom;
make sure you put Never Seize on the little plugs just like on the 02 sensor

:drummer:

 

[Bikenbear]

15000km on the bike now. I know it can be welded but I would hope that under warranty they should replace the unit rather than just weld it. I have been thinking for a while now about getting a spare cat and gutting it and converting it to a muffler that exits under the bike (Buell style). I would like to polish it all up because as you can see the stainless has gone rusty looking with the heat and looks crap.

Resom if you want to PM me we could discuss me taking one off your hands. The catch is how to get it to New Zealand without spending a million dollars on freight. The expensive part is the extra money that I have to spend on a Power Commander Race ECU and dyno time to make it all run after I modify the exhaust. Yes I know about the microteck (?) system thanks but that's way out of my price ability.

I enjoy making things out of stainless.
I custom built an under-seat system for my BMW when I had that years ago and I designed it so I could change the baffling easily so I could get the sound I wanted from it so I will probably do something similar with the Brute, but I have to be able to tune the motor to match. The Beemer lost about 7 kg in weight and was the best sounding boxer you ever heard but it was running so lean it was going to melt a piston and it was not worth spending lots of money and time on a PC so I took it off again. I made a pack rack for my Aprillia which I kept and modified it to go on the Brutale so I have somewhere to carry stuff if I go away on a long trip and that's all stainless which works well and looks good. I just discovered over Xmas that the Givi top box of my wife's scooter fits it so that's going to be useful storage but yeah I know that is real fugly but sometime's practicality comes before beauty (not often though) It mounts where the back seat pad goes so it goes on and comes off real easy
Cheers guys

 

[Donsy]

Hi Evan.
Good luck with the warranty on a 4 year old bike (?), and I understand you feel you can fix this if you need to.

It's been proved in many cases that guys de-cat these bikes, using the same ECU and just putting the O2 sensor back in the pipe, with no problems, some bikes running better than before the de-cat.

Not saying you will melt pistons either, that's pushing the envelope a bit, not like it's a RZ350, and not saying it won't need a Power Commander or Microtec, just saying that if it was my bike, I'd give it a shot first.

Just have a look on the forum at the amount of people who's done mods, with great result's at minimum cost's, and no, forget that Buell exhaust theory..

FWIW, I would not try de-cat that standard shit-box, it's so thin and ugly.

 

[Matt M.]

Please please don't polish that thing, it will only draw attention to it.

 

[theknurl]

Donsy;
here smog crap must last 50,000mi so they'd have to warranty it

I agree don't decat, replace

:drummer:

 

[Bikenbear]

Just an update for those interested. The bike was still under full warranty as it was an old stock but new bike, so the cat and front pipes (all one piece) have been replaced last week under warranty. They also replaced the radiator guard which had the paint peeling off and the little rubber trim around the key surround all under warranty. But no more as my 2 year warranty is now up so if anything else packs up I will be paying for it. Bummer! On top of those repairs the bike has had the fuse/relay box replaced and both front disc rotors, so thank goodness for warranty. All done with no hassle except it took about 5 months for the rad guard to arrive but least the bike was still mobile. So I am a happy customer. I did try and get hold of the old exhaust so I could make up a new system myself but they wont give it to me. Shame but I was not surprised. From peoples earlier comments on here I think I am going to look into a cat replacement pipe and see what that does. From that its an easy step to put a replacement muffler on it. I have a brand new 2 Brothers carbon fibre can in the garage which will look gorgeous on the Brutale.